@stormcat Ooooooooooooh, that makes so much more sense! Forget pretty much everything I just said. If what I understand you want to do now, some mad scientist wanted to make a "better" person and tossed a bunch of animals in a blender and came up with a hybrid that gave birth to most of the old European myths, yes? If that is the case, I would toss or alter all of the animal stuff that doesn't fit with the myths. Like instead of covering them with scales like you were thinking, make them super hairy in order to fit with werewolves. This actually dovetails nicely with the real-world superstitions that caused people to think up werewolves, it's not a small or superficial change, and it is still fairly easy to "disguise" by simply shaving... a lot. The snake fangs/venom would work perfectly for vampires, but I still wouldn't have them retract completely and be invisible to the naked eye. It's too easy and I can't think of any real snakes off the top of my head that actually retract their fangs all the way. In some vipers, the fangs have protective sheaths of skin and are actually hinged to fold back against the roofs of their mouths when not in use. If they are set behind the row of normal of human teeth, this would make them much harder (but not impossible) to see while keeping them very realistic. It might cause your characters to talk slightly funny though. Sorry, I really don't have many ideas for the zombies. Unless you give them super-fast metabolisms that make them ravenously hungry. Maybe if they have to go for even a relatively short period of time without food (a day or two) they get hungry enough to eat the dead. I really don't have anything else. The witch stuff is easily explained by the non-visible animal "super powers" you plan on giving them. Hope that helps give you some ideas for brainstorming!
Why don't you have the chimerids turn humans into chimerids by electrocuting them? That would be less vampire-y, and would fit in with the theme of electricity. You could say what makes a chimerid a chimerid is the fact they have electric current instead of blood, or extra electricity in their brains. Something which they can pass on, and something which allows them to manipulate other forms of electricity. Also, as a thematic thing, I think there's some great room to work here. The "classic chimerid scene" could be where someone's cowering in a lit room and suddenly the lights fuse out, and everything is inky blackness except for a pair of glowing eyes piercing the darkness... I'm liking this, go for it!
Boring, any old sod can invent a new race then. Humans with webbed feet... They aren't humans, theyre Zogolopoids. Humans with 4 fingers? Not humans, I tell you. Ripolstons through and through. Please, do go further than just changing a few traits. See, everyone has that mindset, so no one rights any new vampire stories. I'll be honest with you, I straight out don't like your idea. It just doesn't... work, to just mash up a few different myths to create a bigger myth. Pretty sure putting animal DNA into humans kills them. Also, the time it would take, even if the insertion was possible, for those humans to involve into Chimerwhatsits, would be over the span of several million years or more. Maybe I'm just being a boring d-k right now, but it's just not believable to me.
...writes any new vampire stories.* Why not? People do it all the time. Where did you get this idea? People have had sex with animals before. And animal body parts can be used in human bodies. ...evolve into chimerwhatsits* Sorry I just couldn't resist. Spelling is important to me.
I wrote that at midnight, sorry :/ Yes, but actually injecting the DNA into the bloodstream as OP suggests would, unlike The Lizard character in Spider-Man (sorry, I have no other examples), you would not become a giant lizard. Your body would probably just destroy the foreign DNA and that would be the end of that. It's true you can use organs, but having a pigs kidney won't turn you into a pigman.
This is a fantasy story! it's not supposed to be scientifically accurate! besides, Vampires, Werewolves and zombies get away with it without anyone questioning it.
What about rather than infecting someone from a bite it could be done by a scratch. This would also keep it close to werewolf lore if you want to do that. You could bring in problems of concealment and animal like traits if you wanted by evolution they naturally have longer, thicker nails but to fit into high society they need to keep them trimmed. The catch would be that they are closer to the set up of claws like rabbits so they have nerves up to a certain point so the process of trimming would be extremely painful forcing them to chose how much they want to fit in or whether they utilise gloves to avoid pain. It would also give an advantage to the women as they would have less need to conceal this than men. What disadvantages in personality do they have that risks exposure, vampires need to feed or suffer from bloodlust, werewolves transform in a full moon. Could there be a trait that is of risk? What is their motivation to spread their race. Vampires for example tend to be careful as they often select someone as a companion that they are responsible for. If your spreading this in a time where discretion is needed you want a good reason.
I need the biting mechanism to set a critical scene in motion. My MC thinks she's gonna be raped, but when she's bitten instead it sets off the subplot of "discovering myself". These creatures don't have a particular "weakness" that sets them apart from humans, they just know that if someone finds out they are "different" there will be an angry mob. Think of Frankenstein's monster, no particular weakness, but he still frightens the superstitious villagers.
How would your character actually realise they are different after the bite if they don't stay in contact with the chimerid. Apart from the eyes there aren't any clear differences. Do their powers manifest out of control until they practice with them? And what prompts the seemingly random assault?
As soon as MC realizes that there's something... off about her new husband, he's forced to turn her to keep up the masquerade. She spends a while in Psychosis, but after her husband calms her down and convinces her that he still loves her, he's able to explain just what he (and now she) is. She's too ill to discover her powers until much later. Also, they eyes are the only difference... so far. I created this thread to try and figure out some more differences.
Make them look like Eletro from The Amazing Spider Man 2 movie. Glowing in the dark with electric powers just gave me the Eletro idea. They can also be like electric eels.
What? Considering we still know very little about biology in general, it's not impossible to imagine other odd advancements made in the past that fell into obscurity because of how 'evil' they were.
So... let me restate what we've got about these creatures so far. -They have eyes that glow in the dark and retractable fangs, but otherwise look like normal humans. -They can transform humans via bite -They can manipulate ambient energy to utilize mental powers. Now, there's got to be more we can add, but what?
How about their behavior? Having a certain type of behavior (Aggressive, Slow, Sneaky, Friendly) could be a characteristic of a specific race.
Well, I want their personalities to be varied since I have many Chimerid characters. But I guess they tend to be rather bookish by nature. I still need to work on what makes them "Monstrous". I want to do more animal traits (That can still be hidden) in going with the "Chimera" name.
You mentioned that you was thinking about maybe giving them scales on their legs. What about if you made them snake like and they shed their skin occasionally? It could be limited to specific regions such as their legs if you wanted or you could bring it into a larger scale, like if they have a longer life span perhaps the shedding of skin allows them to retain their healthy looking features? They would then also have to work out how to inconspicuously dispose of this. Does the difference in their eyes confer any benefit such as better night vision? Perhaps they are more alert to threats and that can make them seem on edge to others or unusually calm as nothing seems to surprise them in the way humans expect. You said that they have no appendix and different brains does this process happen to those that are converted as well? Is this why your MC falls ill afterwards. If they are bookish that would effect their personality, do they shy away from human interaction because of the fear of revealing themselves or because they see themselves as above humans or simply because they don't need social gratification like humans or because their society values knowledge and its application over brute force. This would effect however they govern themselves and interact with those of their own species.
The Shedding skin is a useful idea, but I was kinda looking for more permanent features. Then again since they are mostly mammal I could have them shed some head hair when it gets hot. Yes, they do have better night vision and hearing but I guess the best way to show this would be to give them the spider-man danger sense. Of course, things can still sneak up on them. Basically a little more brain matter grows and the appendix recedes into the large intestine. My MC falls ill due to shock, not this process. I'm still not sure I'm going to use the big sweeping "bookish" trait, but their society does prefer brains over brawn.
Does anyone know of any "Werewolf-like" traits I could add on, other than hairiness? In my research of them they don't seem to differ much from regular wolves, other than the transformation in the full moon.
I'm thinking about changing the name of these creatures. Since we've been unable to come up with animal features for the "Chimera" bit. Any suggestions?
Your avatar makes me think why dont you give your cretures the octupus' camoflage abilities ? Your cretures human form could essentially just be a camoflage. Take a look at this vidio You could also give them a strong pack mentality. Like wolfs or wild dogs... or gangs and have them kill for their piers and do everything for the Group. Plus remember Hierarki is an important thing in pack mentality.
